Leaders at a mosque at the centre of a controversy involving Channel 4 presenter Cathy Newman today said “it had been the toughest weeks in its history”.
Newman caused a storm when she claimed she had been shepherded out of the South London Islamic Centre in Streatham on Visit My Mosque Day on February 1.
But CCTV footage revealed she left the mosque alone and it later emerged she had gone to the wrong venue.
Yesterday she apologised and said that she would be taking a break from Twitter.
In a statement, the mosque said it accepted her apology but was saddened at it described as Newman’s “instinctive reaction” in assuming that she was being mistreated by Muslim men on account of her gender.
The letter, signed by trustee Mohammed Ali, said: “The last few weeks have been some of the toughest in our small mosque’s history. Never before in our 37 years of welcoming worshippers from South London have we been thrust into the national spotlight as we have this month.”
It went on: “If any good can possibly come out of this incident, we hope that it will remind public figures of the need to be judicious not just in the language they use, but in considering how their view of our faith is tainted by the fog of Islamophobia, which is increasingly clouding our national dialogue.”
